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+--- Thread: I have always wondered ... (/showthread.php?tid=4652)
RE: I have always wondered ... - Dave Mann - 11-07-2020
There isn't room on the quadrant for accelerator.
RE: I have always wondered ... - AustinWood - 11-07-2020
In the days when I traveled to and from Cambridge to Dundee for University I used the hand throttle on the A1. In the winter I could then put my feet on the gearbox for added warmth.
RE: I have always wondered ... - Rick F - 11-07-2020
I'm sure I remember reading somewhere - but cannot remeber where - that "Petrol" was actually a registered trade mark and as such Sir Herbert might have infringed something by using it. More importantly he might have had to pay someone!
RE: I have always wondered ... - Mike Costigan - 11-07-2020
Yes, petrol was the trade name for a nineteenth century cleaning product made by Carless, Capel & Leonard, which turned out to be most effective as a fuel in internal combustion engines! However, they failed to register it as a Trade Mark, so the word came into common usage for any brand of Motor Spirit.
RE: I have always wondered ... - Peter Clayton - 11-07-2020
Could have used "+ CARB - " which might have made sense. Used mine quite often as cruise setting when road conditions allowed.
RE: I have always wondered ... - Mike Costigan - 11-07-2020
I don't believe everything I read in Wikepedia, but this would suggest that gasolene was an English word before the Americans misspelt it
RE: I have always wondered ... - Charles Levien - 11-07-2020
This is so very true — a couple of turns on the tick over screw plus a little choke makes starting with the handle a doddle.
RE: I have always wondered ... - Rogerfrench - 11-07-2020
When I was young some people used the word gas in a motoring context, like "stepping on the gas", "giving it the gas" etc., so I guess that even earlier it might not have been so much of an Americanism.
Motorcyclists had their own vocabulary, they spoke of "opening the taps", for example.
RE: I have always wondered ... - Colin Morgan - 11-07-2020
When I had driving lessons in the late '70s my instructor, who was about to retire, used say 'A bit of gas...' So it was in UK parlance then.
Can't think of another word that would have done the same job - 'Fuel', 'accelerator', 'right-foot' etc aren't as neat.
However, as mentioned, it seems likely 'Gas' as it appeared on Austin cars was influenced by American cars of the period? The terms 'throttle lever' and 'gas lever' both seem to be used for instructions on driving the Ford Model T, for example.
RE: I have always wondered ... - squeak - 11-07-2020
Let's just say it stands for 'Go At Speed' if we wish to Trump the Americans.